Running My First Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon was a special challenge for me because I had never run a marathon, was recovering from shoulder surgery, and running goes against everything a high altitude mountaineer is taught from a conservation of oxygen point of view.

But it was for charity –and the American Red Cross at that – whose flag I had taken to the North Pole in 2013, the year of the Boston Marathon Bombings, which I dedicated to the incident. So if there was ever a marathon I was going to run it had to be Boston and it had to be for the American Red Cross, the largest and most efficient humanitarian charity in the world.

When I think back to 2013 what strikes me the most are the number of amputee victims. I grew up with a mother who had an amputated foot, and later a climbing partner who would lose his foot to frostbite. So, no matter how unfit I was, these individuals, who carried on with such tremendously great outlooks on life, even running marathons themselves, really said it all. There is no excuse. You have to put yourself out there and try. The people of Boston gave me courage to run this marathon and to make that finish line. I am very grateful.

The pictures below are from the Associated Press, Getty and BAA and give a sense of what it was like to be part of The Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day 2017.

About Vanessa O’Brien

Vanessa O’Brien is a British-American mountain climber, explorer, public speaker and former business executive. She became the first American and British woman to successfully summit K2, the second tallest mountain in the world, on July 28, 2017 when she led a team of 12 members to the summit on her third attempt. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Member of The Explorers Club.

She has climbed the highest peak on every continent and has a Guinness World Record for doing so in 295 days, setting a record for the fastest time a woman first achieved this goal. Vanessa has also skied the last 60 nautical miles or 111 km to the South Pole and North Pole completing the Explorers Grand Slam in 11 months, becoming the first woman to do so in under a calendar year and the 8th woman in the world to accomplish this. Vanessa has also successfully completed the Boston Marathon running 26.2 miles in 2017.